Evaluating Grantmaking in South Africa

With the conclusion of the Charles E. Culpeper Human Advancement program, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund decided to conduct an assessment of its work in South Africa, which was largely housed under Human Advancement. The core interests of the Human Advancement program—leadership, diversity, equity, and arts and culture—will receive continued attention in the RBF's current programs. In 2008, the Fund selected two South African firms—Insideout: Monitoring and Evaluation Specialists and Centre for AIDS Development, Research, and Evaluation (CADRE)—to conduct an assessment of RBF grantmaking on the ground.

Although RBF's grantmaking in South Africa concluded in March 2009, the Fund hopes these assessments will provide donors, grantees, and policymakers in the field with useful insight into the impact of philanthropy on policy, practice, and individual projects, taken from one foundation's experience.

Attached are the CADRE and Insideout reports. The evaluations provide an in-depth analysis of the RBF's grantmaking strategies in South Africa from 2003 to 2008; a donor directory for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that seek funding for work in the areas of basic education and vulnerable children; and a report on the outcomes and suggestions from a meeting of RBF grantees in October 2008.